Why, yes, I am a domestic goddess.

That's the thought that was going through my head as I started taking pictures like this one today:

It all began when Mike woke up not feeling well enough to hit the gym before work. Being the remarkable guy he is, he got our grocery shopping done at 6:00 a.m. instead. Knocking that out in the morning rather than after work made it possible for me to bake a double batch of marbled biscotti today (needed a few ingredients).

Mike headed to work, and I gave Michael and Sophie a couple of toys to play with in their high chairs after breakfast to buy myself some time to mix the dough. Melted chocolate, orange zest, toasted hazelnuts--no scented candles needed today!

Once Michael and Sophie were down for their morning nap, I assembled the biscotti loaves and did the first round of baking and clean-up.

When the babies woke up, I found that Sophie had a fever again (it keeps coming back--teething ?). I gave her some Tylenol, and we all played in the living room and playroom.

When it was time to cut the loaves into cookies and lightly bake them again, I was nervous about how it would go between Sophie not feeling well and Michael's desire to put his crawling skills to use at every moment. I was pleasantly surprised when they sat happily in their Bumbos in the entryway by the kitchen entertained by rattles. I sang and danced for them as well while I worked and couldn't help but think how their giggles have trained some reasonably cool adults to behave in very uncool ways. Michael and Sophie will surely regret this in their tween years.

We played some more once I got the cookies back in the oven, and when the timer went off to take the cookies out, I put Sophie in the Exersaucer and made sure that Michael was engrossed in sucking on and banging blocks together. I grabbed my camera and headed to the kitchen.

I was feeling pretty proud of myself for juggling mommy duties and not completely screwing up my baking project as I took a few pictures of the final product.

Then I peeked out into the living room to check on my little buddies and saw this:

Never a dull moment!

I was thinking that "Double Batch" might be cute name for this blog...if only I had more time to bake!